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2 June 2017Patents

Patent filings could fall 69% in East Texas after TC Heartland ruling

The US Supreme Court’s recent decision in TC Heartland v Kraft Foods could drive a 69% drop in patent filings in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in 2017, according to Unified Patents.

Unified Patents, an organisation with the goal of reducing the number of non-practicing entity assertions, released its findings yesterday.

The Eastern District of Texas, a popular destination for patent filings, may see a decrease of 1000 new cases next year, although it would still make the district the second-most popular venue.

The US District Court for the District of Delaware is expected to fare differently—Unified Patents estimated a 230% increase in filings (almost 500 additional new cases), making it the largest patent venue.

But, according to the organisation, this may cause some issues, given that two of the district’s four full-time seats are vacant.

In what was described as a “seismic” decision, the Supreme Court tightened the patent venue rules in an 8-0 decision on May 22 in TC Heartland v Kraft Foods.

The court ruled that for the purposes of establishing “residency” for venue in patent infringement cases, corporations are only resident in the state in which they are incorporated.

Following the decision, Unified Patent said it expects a nearly 300% increase (300 new cases) in cases for the US District Court for the Northern District of California, surpassing the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The organisation combined data on patent filings in 2015 from professors Colleen Chien and Michael Risch’s prior estimates of what impact a stricter venue ruling would have on district court filings with the anticipated volume of litigation in 2017.

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20 July 2017   The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas’s share of patent suits dropped in the second quarter of 2017, in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland v Kraft Foods.